Wednesday, December 22, 2010

I am going to write a blog post. This introductory paragraph will begin with a statement about the fact that I am blogging, and will outline the key goals of this posting. I am blogging. This blog will consist of the following sections: A) I will state who is writing this blog. 2) I will state that it has been a while since I have blogged. d) I will post some sentences and/or pictures that illustrate some of the recent events of my life

A) This is Eileen.

2) It has been a while since I have blogged. I wish I could go all Hyperbole and a Half (hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com) on you guys and post a fantastic hand drawn picture of myself looking forlorn over the fact that I am remiss in my blogging responsibilities. That being said, why not give it a try:

I am very good at WordArt.

d) The following paragraphs will consist of one recent and major event in the lives of the Kranz family. (Warning: This will contain a demonstration of my superior photography skills).

So now that we have that out of the way.... 2 Fridays ago I flew into Baltimore for the Army/Navy game. At the risk of blatantly exaggerating, I will say that the weekend was easily one of the most legendary weekends in the Kranz Family history. Upon arriving at BWI, I was picked up by Kate, Meghan and Dad (both of whom had blown in from Kansas (not a typo) the night before. We went to lunch near the Inner Harbor at the Cheesecake Factory, and noshed on some appetizers and beer while waiting for Uncle Joe to show up! Once he arrived, Katie, Meghan and I departed from them to go run errands to get ready for the big day. Dad did not want to go to Dallas so he stayed with Joe and went to the USNS COMFORT Christmas Party instead. WE on the other, WENT TO DALLAS, and it was fun. First stop: Town Hall to pick up the Keg and a smattering of other tailgater necessities (read; more beer, rum, peppermint schnapps). The Pathfinder was already super full, but that did not stop us from our NEXT errand: Sam's Club. At this point Katie was beginning to feel the weight of the burden of being in charge of the Class of 2002 tailgater, especially when the hamburger buns filled up a third of the shopping cart and we still had Eleventy Billion more things on the list.

We are very good at Tetris.

Eventually we made it through Sam's, managed to jam everything in to the car and made it back to the house by 10pm (via Travis' for the giant stock pot for chili and a couple Dark and Stormies...). By 1am Meghan and Katie had the car packed, Eileen had successfully busted out a massive vat of chili and buffalo dip (while finishing off a bottle of Gainey Cabernet...). Don't be fooled by this picture, the venture of the evening did NOT actually kill Meghan:

Dead Meghan

Alarms went off at 6am. We needed to be on the road by 6:30. Coffee, showers, primping (you need to look fabulous for Army/Navy).... out the door by 7:00- not bad! We swung by Wawa to pick up coffee and off to Philly we went! No pictures from this part of the morning. ... even the best photographers have to respect the fact that the wee hours are no time for pictures.

We arrived at the parking lot around 10am and began a whirlwind tailgater set up, complete with MASSIVE grill, Blimp, mimosas, breakfast burritos and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.

Katie getting the hot chocolate going

The Blimp!

Needless to say the tailgater was a HUGE success:

Is that a White Russian with Muscle Milk?

Vince tried to drink the buffalo dip with a straw (a spoon was more successful...)

Our Fellow Party Planners

Uncle Joe and Dad showed up around 10:30, at which point the party really started.

Skip and Sue Dirren arrived on the scene to say hi with their daughter Missy (who used to babysit us in Virginia Beach!)

At 2pm it was finally time to go into the game. Football was played, Navy won (!!), photography was made:

Uncle Joe was betting on Army.

You can see Navy's score above them if you look closely!

Hey, and Pokey was there!!!

After the game of course everyone was in the mood to celebrate, so we headed back to the site of the tailgater and continued to party into the night. Our new Boston friends came back with us and joined in for a rousing round(ssss) of Flip Cup, which Dad and Uncle Joe took part in too, amazing! This was a life changing moment. Dad played flip cup.

Flip Cup: Dad vs. Uncle Joe

Team Fish Camp! (With our new friends from Boston!)

Finally around 8 the cops came around and told us we had to close up shop... which means we spent wellllll over an hour CASUALLY cleaning up the party.

Question: How do you extinguish a parking lot bonfire?

Answer: the Keg.

At this point the fact that we had been "celebrating" for 12 hours was beginning to sink in.

Back in Annapolis... crashed out at the Westin bar. (reiteration of the Dead Meghan theme)

Uncle Joe wants to tow something with his monstrous truck- we have it on record that he is hosting next year's tailgater!

Joe's Harrier.. I mean truck.

All in all, it was a weekend for the books. Beat Army!!!

In Conclusion, the above blog posting covered the following points: a) I am Eileen. 2) I blogged. d) we went to the Army/ Navy Game. This blog was intended to be both informative and entertaining. Title of the blog... Naive expression of football..... Modulation and I hold a high note!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I haven't blogged a whole lot about my life. Everyone knew I went to Hawaii, etc. Sometimes I feel my actual life here in Manhattan is a Mystery to some people. New years resolution...I'll work on that.
I live with my very good friend Lauren Michelle Perez. We bonded my freshman year when she was my theatre mentor, and we make the best roommates. Its really a perfect system. Our townhouse apartment is so cute, and we really are having all the fun. More pictures to come...someday.

A few months ago, Lauren brought up to me that she wanted to get a dog. Since she is graduating in May, her philosophy is that she doesn't want to move alone. So after much deliberation, she bought a Siberian husky and named me its second mother. Meet Amadeus, my new roomie.

Meet Amadeus. (Ami for short) He is 8 weeks old, and I named him when I was doing my Music Theory homework. He is very well behaved (he's almost entirely housebroken already!)

This is the weirdest dog I have ever met. He hates puppy treats (We're training him with soynuts, its how I got him to sit still for these pictures), and when we first got him, he didn't eat until we lured him to the puppy chow with sweet and sour sauce.

This flower is his favorite toy, and he loves to play with people. He's gonna be a big guy too....his dad was 75 pounds! :) I never thought I'd turn into much of a mommy until I heard myself say "Amadeus, no! Does that belong to us? That is NOT how we do"

Anyway, He's my new little love, and check out those blue eyes! He's so pretty...I love living with him...even when he tried to chew on my slippers.

Monday, December 6, 2010

So in all my recent running I've been consistently running 9:40-10:00 miles. I could never get over the hump. I've always wanted to run a half marathon in 2:00:00 and have never quite been able to. Well, not counting half of my whole marathon. I did the first split in exactly 2:00:00. Where that came from I have no idea. Two weeks after that I did a half and did it in 2:05:23.
Well I actually made myself do speed work and it paid off!
I went to Dallas this weekend (with some fabulous friends) to run the Dallas White Rock 1/2. My only goal was to do it in under 2:00:00 even if that meant doing it in 1:59:59. :) Well I pushed myself and cranked it out in 1:59:33! Average 9:06 minute mile! Yipee!!!!